Category Archives for Income Reports

It definitely isn’t business as usual these days. But these are the times that truly test you as a business owner. After all, many of the people on our list started these businesses for that very reason – to have control over their own direction. So while some of these entrepreneurs have seen signs of challenge, they all stay motivated and show a willingness to adapt. There are opportunities out there, you just need to find them.

#1 Takeaway – Follow the Trends – Due to situations outside of our control, things have changed an awful lot in the past months. However, with changing circumstances come changing consumer demands. Our #1 takeaway is to stay on top of these market trends, and identify where the new opportunities lie.

Use Your Gut – Sometimes the situation is so unprecedented that you aren’t really sure how to proceed. If there isn’t a significant wealth of knowledge to draw on, sometimes you just have to go with what you think will succeed. Many entrepreneurs on our list decided to chase niches that they thought would be successful. Things like online learning, home workouts, home shopping, and more. That being said, even in a new situation, sometimes you can find the best knowledge by looking at your peers…

Monitor Other Success Stories – You can see just by these income reports that people are more than willing to share their success! Many entrepreneurs on our list have pointed to the relative booms in areas such as dropshipping, online learning, and many other online niches. The information is out there, and people want to share it. Learn from the entrepreneurs on our list who have weathered this storm, and see how you can capitalize on this yourself!

Signup for TheHustle email list – a great summary of trends impacting entrepreneurship.

Quick April Update on my End:

5 Posts at AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com (one of my biggest months)

Highlight – Amazon Affiliate Earnings – I stayed up most of the night when this was announced and built a tool to be able to calculate how the earnings of Amazon Affiliate sites will change as a result of the reduction in commissions announced by Amazon. This was the most visited article on the site and received more engagement then I have had on almost any other post. It is unfortunate for us Amazon Affiliates but definitely not unusual in the world.

Launched EssentialGoods.org to try and use our talents to address a COVID-19 related problem.

Overall it has been a failure… although it works and gained some traction/marketing the result is that the problem it is solving is simply not enough of a pain point for even the incredibly low price point (which was only there to try and break-even).

MotionInvest had a big disruption the week Amazon made their announcement but is back on track and the demand for quality smaller money making websites is as strong as ever.

ContentRefined – With the business manager Maddie heading off on Mat leave we had to do a lot of work to make sure our systems were tight

New SAAS Project for Helping with Money Sites- Underway and I will be sharing more details shortly

When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online. Seeing that people like me were making REAL money and that the opportunity to replace my day job was possible.

Ron had a tough month in April. However, he did anticipate it after seeing the trends in ad rates and traffic.

However, Ron had a strong month on YouTube, and was happy with that. He had strong growth in revenue and views.

Ron knows there are tough times but he is hopeful. He has development plans with several websites, wants to continue to produce content with great writers, and wants to continue building content for YouTube.

Checkout the video I did with Ron and be sure to read his gripping story here!

Johnny is still in Sri Lanka. He has more freedom now that the lockdown is lifted.

Johnny is happy with where he is at, and actually found he is quite productive living alone in Sri Lanka.

He is lucky that during this time, e-commerce stores are thriving. Two of Johnny’s stores saw a lot of success in April.

Aside from dropshipping, many of Johnny’s other businesses have taken a big hit. Specifically, Amazon affiliates are no longer making the same percentage of sales, which is why he wants to shift away from that.

We all know that it isn’t business as usual these days. In February, many businesses were not as affected, but were starting to see things take shape. This next while will surely test as business owners, as it will test everyone else. This income report is centered on February, where problems were not yet as prominent, but we surely will see some unexpected occurrences in next month’s report.

#1 Takeaway – Follow Through – Many of the businesses on this list had yet to feel the effects of the coronavirus this month, although that will surely become an issue in the March and April roundups. For now, many of these businesses posted strong months, and this was largely by follow-through. Many of these business owners saw success in February because of plans they had set in motion months prior. There are a few key things to keep in mind to follow through to the best of your ability. :

Trust Yourself – A key to following through is to trust your plans. If you have a specific, actionable plan, don’t be dissuaded if it doesn’t reap rewards immediately. After all, many successful plans are long-term, and require a significant investment up front. So trust your plan and see it through, you can’t fully benefit from the plan if you don’t follow it all the way through.

Know When To Pivot – Of course, not every plan will be successful, and you have to know the point at which you pivot. If you are concerned about a goal, or are really not seeing the results you wanted, there is always the option to restructure or to start a new plan. Finding this balance is the difficult part, and is often learnt by doing.

How Much is My Website Worth? – In this post I dug in deep on the IncomeStore portfolio to look at the value of the sites within the portfolio.

LOTS of skiing this winter with the family

ContentSurge has been very well received… people are hungry for a content marketing solution that goes beyond just words to include strategy, great content and a link building strategy – Checkout ContentSurge here

MotionInvest is continuing to see very large demand for its services and in February has launched a giveaway…be sure to signup and potentially receive a FREE website!

My Reason for This Round Up:

When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online. Seeing that people like me were making REAL money and that the opportunity to replace my day job was possible.

January is often a good month for online business owners. The holiday season is over and people are back into the routine. This often comes with an uptick in traffic, which online entrepreneurs enjoy. There are many ways to capitalize on this increase in online activity, as you will see through the work of the many successful entrepreneurs we outline below.

The team internally has been pushing hard to set and achieve some BIG goals in Q1 2020. We have fully adopted an OkR goal-setting framework internally and we have seen some incredible benefits in terms of alignment!

There are a few growth opportunities the team is busy working away on and I am very excited about it! More on these will be revealed over the coming months.

#1 Takeaway – Persistence – Several of the websites on our list saw revenue and traffic (expectedly) dip during the holiday season (if they aren’t in e-commerce). However, they spent this time investing in their future plans and goals. They were not complacent, and they capitalized when traffic rebounded in January. This shows the importance of staying persistent even when things aren’t going exactly to plan. Some lessons to be learned from this include:

Live with Variability – One of the most important lessons to be learned from being an entrepreneur is that “consistency” is not always realistic. There will be ups and downs. What can be consistent is your reaction to these ups and downs. Stay focused on what you want, and use slower periods to plan and invest for more busy seasons.

Specific Goals – This strategy is nothing without specific, achievable goals. Your plans shouldn’t purely rely on the market. You need to know what you are working toward, and you need to follow through on a specific action plan to make it happen. Many of these entrepreneurs made it through this slow period by simply staying focused on what they wanted out of their online business, and the plans that they had made.

Quick January Update on my End:

Posts at AuthorityWebsiteIncome.com

Highlight – Purgatory Link Building – this is my new favorite link building strategy for a portfolio as it is scalable, repeatable and has so far been successful at always generating a few really high-quality links

LOTS of skiing this winter with the family

ContentSurge has been very well received… people are hungry for a content marketing solution that goes beyond just words to include strategy, great content and a link building strategy – Checkout ContentSurge here

MotionInvest is continuing to see a very large demand for its services and in February has launched a giveaway…be sure to signup and potentially receive a FREE website!

My Reason for This Round-Up:

When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online. Seeing that people like me were making REAL money and that the opportunity to replace my day job was possible.

December is often a slow month for online business. Unless you are in an industry that can take advantage of the Christmas shopping period, you might see traffic dip quite significantly. But slow traffic doesn’t mean you have to slow down, just be sure to take some time to enjoy the holiday season as well!

The team internally has been pushing hard to finish up Q4 and get ready for a big year in 2020!

There are a few growth opportunities the team is busy working away on and I am very excited about! More on these will be revealed over the coming months.

#1 Takeaway – Goals – Several of the websites on our list saw revenue and traffic (expectedly) dip during December. This is why our number #1 tip for December is to stay focused on your growth goals. Use these slow periods to invest in your future, instead of becoming discouraged. Don’t be complacent, here are a few ways you can set yourself up for the future:

Accountability and Specifics – One of the most important parts of setting goals is to be specific and hold yourself accountable. Be very specific about the amount of traffic and revenue you are aiming toward. If you have clear metrics and numbers, you will find it easier to focus in on what you want. A big reason many of these entrepreneurs write these income reports is to hold themselves accountable!

Short and Long Term – It is important to separate your goals into long-term projects and short-term achievable goals. Have an idea of what you want from your business in the long run, but also give yourself goals that you can reach any given day. As an online entrepreneur, there is always something you can do in the short term to improve – whether it is generating content, working on SEO, narrowing in on a niche, or more!

My Reason for This Round Up:

When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online. Seeing that people like me were making REAL money and that the opportunity to replace my day job was possible.

A competitor was stealing some of the top terms from Ron’s most successful website. Ron sees this as a big drawback of having one main point of failure (one website that makes the most money). Ron has some fixes in mind to fix these problems in 2020.

Overall, 2019 was a big success! Ron has been able to surpass his goals in traffic and revenue each year.

The overall growth rate has been great! (look at the graph below)

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Checkout the video I did with Ron and be sure to read his gripping story here!

Lidiya focused on SEO this month, including deleting a substantial amount of old, outdated content. This way, Google can stop crawling thin content and focus on the long form content she wants to promote.

Lidiya created a new freebie for subscribers, a comprehensive blogging guide! Hopefully this will incentivize even more subscribers.

Lidiya saw her traffic drop pretty significantly this month, but she knows this is pretty normal for December and January.

November is an interesting month for online business! It can be great if you can take advantage of Black Friday and Cyber Monday. But besides that, it can be a rather slow month for web traffic, as people are so busy getting prepared for the Holidays.

The team internally has been pushing hard to finish up Q4 and get ready for a big year in 2020!

There are a few growth opportunities the team is busy working away on and I am very excited about! More on these will be revealed over the coming months.

#1 Takeaway – Diversify – Several of the sites covered here have invested money in various areas to grow their businesses. Diversifying your online businesses is a great strategy so that you do not become too dependent on one form of online income, and are able to ride out rough patches. Here are some ways that some of these online entrepreneurs have diversified:

Multiple Sites – One way to diversify as an online entrepreneur is to run multiple websites. This is a time intensive task, but you can minimize the work by contracting out certain tasks. This is a cyclical business by nature, but you can help to smooth this out by focusing on different websites within different niches – such as blogging, affiliate marketing, e-commerce, and more.

Income – Successful online entrepreneurs also attempt to diversify their income sources. If you have money coming from different sources, you can withstand the occasional slow down. Try to generate multiple income methods – such as through advertising, affiliate marketing, freelance work, or selling your expertise.

Single Failure Point (Traffic or Revenue) – It is hard to not have a single failure point with an online business, either Amazon or Google often hold the a LARGE amount of control. Finding ways to own the land you build your business on and become as insulated from the whims of some of the largest companies in the world is always a great goal!

MotionInvest has continued to demonstrate that there is an underserved need in buying/selling content sites efficiently!

Ski Hills opened the earliest they ever have!

My Reason for This Round Up:

When I started my online entrepreneurship journey I took a lot of inspiration from others that were sharing everything they did online. Seeing that people like me were making REAL money and that the opportunity to replace my day job was possible.

The more transparent the report the more I appreciated and was motivated by it.

Over the years I have tried to be as transparent as possible sharing along the way my goals, business successes/failures and the ultimate results(profits).

After years of sharing monthly income posts I decided that it made sense to stop these… a decision I actually regret as I wish I had found a way to keep sharing some of what I was doing. My reason was as my online world and “real” worlds became more tangled.

Looking at many of the people that originally had an income round up they have also stopped. Namely the most famous in the space Pat Flynn no longer does income round ups.

I will cover…

List of inspiring income report posts and how they earned their profits

Recognize motivating people showing not just telling people the results they are achieving

Lidiya started a new side hustle this month. She is selling “printables” for bloggers through an Etsy page.

For the first time in a few months, Lidiya saw her traffic decrease below 100K monthly page views. She is fine with this however, as during the holiday season people tend to spend more time online shopping.

She took an SEO course and made some big changes to her content – including deleting off-topic posts, replacing broken links, and updating internal links.

My name is Jon Gillham I am a 33 year old, husband, father of 3 (all aged 4 and under), engineer and huge geek when it to comes to systematizing and outsourcing any business. With over 10 years in the online publisher/advertising space I try to provide my thoughts with the hope it helps people build their own business! More About Me